Chapter Summaries

Lin Ze brought Old Mulciber to Crouch and explained the evidence linking the Mulciber family to the vampire experiments. Crouch authorized Lin Ze to investigate a vampire hiding at 19 King Street in Muggle London, and Lin Ze arranged to scout the address with Mia the next day.

• Lin Ze escorted Old Mulciber to the Ministry and told Crouch about the Dark Night Society, the vampire Targaryen, the six families’ division of the blood, and the evidence from Old Mulciber’s home.
• Crouch asked what Lin Ze intended to do with Old Mulciber, and Lin Ze said he would detain him while Ben prepared the charges and evidence list.
• Lin Ze revealed that Amycus might be hiding at 19 King Street, near Buckingham Palace, and asked Crouch for authorization to investigate in Muggle London.
• Crouch granted Lin Ze temporary independent authority for seven days, with strict conditions against harming Muggles or exposing the wizarding world.
• Lin Ze handed Old Mulciber over to the Aurors and promised to remember what he had promised him.
• Lin Ze told Mia they would scout 19 King Street the next day, and Mia asked whether he was feeling all right.

Lin Ze and Mia investigated the discreet private library at 19 King Street and found its guarded entrance concealed from ordinary passersby. They left with director E. Hargreaves’s contact card and planned to investigate him before seeking access.

• Lin Ze and Mia examined the library’s property records and watched the entrance, noticing that passersby seemed not to see its door.
• Lin Ze and Mia entered the library, where a Muggle receptionist required referrals and gave them E. Hargreaves’s contact details.
• Lin Ze noted the receptionist’s signs of security training and wondered whether Muggles had an agreement to protect the library.
• Mia photographed the frontage, and she and Lin Ze decided to check Hargreaves’s public records before contacting him.
• Lin Ze parted from Mia and turned into an alley, where he took out the silver badge.

Lin Ze and Mia investigated E. Hargreaves, whose unusually spotless records linked him to 19 King Street, a Muggle organization dealing with unexplained matters. They met Hargreaves at his library, but their conversation remained polite and superficial.

• Lin Ze asked Rodna about E. Hargreaves and learned that 19 King Street was a Muggle organization handling unusual matters, though Rodna knew nothing about Hargreaves himself.
• Mia found that Edgar Hargreaves had worked at the Home Office, had an unexplained four-year gap in his records, and later took over his family’s King Street library.
• Lin Ze suspected Amycus might be hiding within the organization and arranged a library visit for himself and Mia.
• Lin Ze and Mia arrived at 19 King Street the following afternoon and were escorted into the reading room to meet Hargreaves.
• Hargreaves served them tea and discussed the library’s collection, membership, and hours while Lin Ze presented himself as an investor seeking a quiet place to read.

Lin Ze and Mia investigated the hidden door at the library, then followed the recurring man in the hunting cap into St. James's Park, where he revealed himself as Amycus. Amycus explained his captivity by the Gaunt family and how Megan freed him before she died, then began recounting his life underground in London.

• Lin Ze questioned Hargreaves about the library's history and noticed a concealed door with a faint light and drag marks beneath it.
• Lin Ze and Mia left the library, and Lin Ze told her he suspected a concealed room and possibly wizard involvement.
• Lin Ze spotted the man in the hunting cap near Horse Guards Parade and followed him with Mia into St. James's Park.
• The man introduced himself as Amycus and said he had come to meet Lin Ze rather than let him grow suspicious of the library.
• Amycus told Lin Ze that the Gaunt family had imprisoned him for two hundred years, Megan had freed him and died, and he had hidden in London's sewers during the war.
• Lin Ze asked Amycus how he became involved with 19 King Street and its Muggles.

Amycus told Lin Ze how Dyson Hargreaves discovered him during the war and recruited him to help the Muggle government investigate supernatural incidents through the library at 19 King Street. He explained why he later refused Edgar’s request to fight the Death Eaters’ creatures, then revealed that Megan’s wish for a Muggle life had inspired him to try living that way.

• Amycus recounted how Dyson Hargreaves found him in an underground pipe, brought him food and supplies, and eventually learned he was a vampire.
• Dyson recruited Amycus to help establish a Muggle government organization, using the library at 19 King Street as cover for investigating supernatural affairs.
• After Dyson died, Amycus agreed to stay and work with Edgar, who provided financial support and protected his identity while Amycus handled supernatural threats.
• Amycus described how he dealt with strange incidents and how creatures from wizarding territory harmed Muggles during the wizarding war.
• Amycus told Lin Ze that he refused Edgar’s request to help because he knew the Death Eaters were responsible and did not want Edgar drawn into the war.
• Amycus said Megan’s wish to live as a Muggle had made him want to try the life she described.

Lin Ze learned that Edgar Hargreaves was investigating the Invisible Veil, an alleged boundary between life and death, and connected it to the black Veil in the Ministry’s Death Chamber. He went to investigate but was denied entry because his clearance was insufficient.

• Amycus told Lin Ze that Edgar had asked about the Invisible Veil after reading his father Dyson’s notes about intelligence from a German wizard in 1944.
• Lin Ze and Amycus noticed a black car watching them near the park, and Lin Ze left with Mia while Amycus went the other way.
• Lin Ze told Mia what Amycus had revealed, and Mia explained that old notes linked the Invisible Veil to failed alchemical attempts to recreate Merlin’s Gate of Life and Death.
• Lin Ze recognized the connection to the black Veil in the Department of Mysteries’ Death Chamber and returned to the Ministry with Mia.
• An Unspeakable denied Lin Ze access to the Death Chamber because he lacked the required authorization.

Lin Ze learned that Mia’s family notes linked Merlin’s Invisible Veil to a mysterious boundary between life and death, then received a map of sites connected to passage into another world from Oliver Sterling. He decided to visit Hogwarts and ask Dumbledore what he knew.

• Lin Ze failed to enter the Department of Mysteries and asked Mia about her great-grandmother’s notes on the “Gate of Life and Death.”
• Mia showed Lin Ze a diagram and translated its message: “Those who cross this line must become this line.”
• Oliver Sterling brought Lin Ze a photograph of someone entering 19 King Street and revealed that a vanished informant had left him a map.
• Sterling gave Lin Ze the map’s other addresses: Loch Ness, Tintagel Castle, and Newgrange Tomb, all associated with passage to another world.
• Lin Ze warned Sterling to avoid the three sites and ask him to report any news from the missing informant.
• Lin Ze decided to visit Hogwarts and speak with Dumbledore about the map and the other mysteries.

Lin Ze visited Sirius and the Quinns while investigating the veil, learning of a hidden staircase at Tintagel and a legend recorded in a Durmstrang book. He left Sirius planning to join him at Tintagel and asked Aila to keep an eye on Quinn.

• Lin Ze told Sirius about his veil theory, and Sirius recalled finding a hidden flight of stone steps at Tintagel with James and agreed to go with Lin Ze after making arrangements.
• Lin Ze visited the Quinns in Godric's Hollow and asked Quinn about the Invisible Veil.
• Quinn remembered a legend in Durmstrang's Ancient Scroll of the North about a curtain separating the living from the dead, and he wrote to Durmstrang to request the book.
• Lin Ze refused Aila's request to join his investigation and instead asked her to watch Quinn and make sure he did not blow up the house.

Lin Ze visited Dumbledore to ask about the veil in the Department of Mysteries and its possible links to ancient sites and runes. Dumbledore confirmed he had seen related symbols at Newgrange and recalled sneaking into the Death Chamber as a teenager, where the veil seemed to cover something.

• Lin Ze arrived at Hogwarts, where Professor McGonagall escorted him to Dumbledore's office.
• Lin Ze told Dumbledore about Amycus's information, the three locations on Sterling's map, and the line in Mia's great-grandmother's notes.
• Dumbledore said he had seen runes at Newgrange Tomb that resembled symbols on the Death Chamber veil.
• Dumbledore recalled sneaking into the Death Chamber at seventeen with a classmate and said the veil looked like a covering over an object.

Lin Ze asked Dumbledore about the Muggles’ investigation of 19 King Street and the eastern shore of Loch Ness, learning that Aberforth had once guarded something there. Afterward, Madam Hooch quietly asked whether Lin Ze’s investigation concerned Hogwarts and urged him to tell her if it did.

• Dumbledore told Lin Ze that Dyson Hargreaves’s people had once discovered a memory-devouring fog in Muggle London, and warned him not to meddle lightly with the Veil.
• Dumbledore said his brother Aberforth had lived on the eastern shore of Loch Ness and had been looking after something, though he did not know what it was.
• Lin Ze left Hogwarts at dusk and stopped at the Three Broomsticks, where he met Madam Hooch.
• Madam Hooch asked Lin Ze whether his investigation had anything to do with Hogwarts, and he said it did not.
• Madam Hooch offered to pay for Lin Ze’s Butterbeer and told him to inform her if his investigation ever involved Hogwarts.

Lin Ze, Mia, and Sirius set off by Muggle train for Tintagel, one of three places linked to legends of another world. As they travelled, Sirius recalled that his family had considered Tintagel unsafe, while Mia shared Muggle records about the ruins.

• Lin Ze told Mia to meet him at King's Cross Station at two the next day and bring Sirius.
• Lin Ze discussed Madam Hooch's warning with Sirius, who suspected she knew something connected to Lin Ze's investigation and wanted Dumbledore kept out of it.
• Lin Ze, Mia, and Sirius met at King's Cross and boarded a Muggle train to Tintagel.
• Sirius recalled hearing his family call Tintagel unsafe and said he had later visited with James.
• Mia showed Lin Ze a booklet describing Tintagel's castle ruins and the unconfirmed legend that King Arthur was born there.

Lin Ze, Mia, and Sirius explored the hidden passage beneath Tintagel’s cliffs and uncovered a submerged staircase leading to an archway identical to the Veil’s arch in the Death Chamber. They found an Old Irish inscription reading “Gael,” which Mia said could mean “the other shore.”

• Lin Ze, Mia, and Sirius traveled to Tintagel and found the hidden stone steps at the cliff’s edge.
• The three descended the slippery passage until they reached a broken stairway above the seawater.
• Lin Ze detected carved grooves in the rock and activated an ancient mechanism, revealing another flight of steps beneath the water.
• Lin Ze, Mia, and Sirius followed the newly exposed stairs to a stone archway that Lin Ze recognized from the Death Chamber.
• Mia found a corroded copper plate inscribed with the Old Irish word “Gael,” which she translated as “foreign land” or “the other shore.”

Lin Ze, Mia, and Sirius found ancient copper plates embedded around a mysterious archway, whose symbols suggested a connection between worlds and life and death. The archway briefly glowed and remained slightly open, leaving them uncertain about what lay beyond it.

• Mia removed a copper plate from a groove in the stone platform and recognized its symbol only vaguely.
• As Lin Ze approached the archway, a crack appeared in its slab and emitted silvery-white light, so Mia urged him to step back.
• Mia tested the archway with her wand, and a piece of the wall fell away to reveal another copper plate.
• Sirius recognized a symbol on the second plate from the Black family library, and Lin Ze pulled a third plate from beneath the stone surface.
• Mia identified the third plate's tree as Yggdrasil, and she and Sirius discussed its connection to the nine realms and Midgard.
• Lin Ze examined the still-open archway and felt an unnatural chill from its dark stone slab.

Lin Ze, Mia, and Sirius entered a strange structure beneath the archway and followed a passage through a dead tree into a vast underground chamber. A misty human figure formed before a stone wall, then vanished when Lin Ze disturbed the water.

• Lin Ze opened the archway by letting it draw magic from him, and Sirius entered first before beckoning Lin Ze and Mia inside.
• The three crossed an immense gray arcade and descended steps that Mia identified as leading toward the roots of the World Tree.
• At the bottom, they found a dead tree on a suspended platform and discovered a fissure in its trunk.
• They followed the narrow wooden passage into a flooded underground chamber lined with circular writing and centered on a solitary stone wall.
• A misty human outline appeared above the water, then dissipated after Lin Ze stepped into the water and sent ripples toward the wall.

Lin Ze, Sirius, and Mia encountered a mysterious figure in a shifting realm called the Other Side, which warned them that those who entered could never leave. Sirius tried to escape but was returned to where he started.

• The world around Lin Ze, Sirius, and Mia warped and then settled, revealing a glowing human-shaped figure floating above the water.
• Lin Ze and Sirius questioned the figure, which identified itself as whatever they thought it was and said the place was the Other Side.
• Mia asked whether the place was the real entrance to the Other Side, and Lin Ze inferred that it was not.
• The figure warned that everyone and everything there was false and that those who entered were no longer permitted to leave.
• Sirius hurried away to test the warning, but after reaching fifty meters, he vanished and reappeared where he had started.

Lin Ze, Sirius, and Mia failed to escape the light figure’s sealed space and entered the rift, descending a spiral staircase into a chamber with three objects on a stone table and a motionless figure. The chapter ended as Lin Ze approached the figure and called out to it.

• Sirius repeatedly tried to escape, but the rules sent him back to his starting point, and Lin Ze’s Boundary Break spell failed.
• Lin Ze concluded that the three of them had no choice but to enter the rift and go to the Other Side.
• The three passed through the rift and descended a spiral stone staircase, where Mia found a worn piece of human finger bone.
• At the bottom, the three entered a chamber containing a pottery bowl, clear water, and a black iron key on a stone table.
• Lin Ze approached the motionless, hunched figure seated before the table and said, “Hello?”

Lin Ze, Sirius, and Mia met Yilai, an ancient gatekeeper who said Merlin had imprisoned it and built a door connected to death. Yilai urged them to kill it with the key so they could leave, and Lin Ze asked if it was certain before acting.

• Mia examined the objects on the stone table while Yilai begged the group to take the key and kill it.
• Yilai told Sirius and Lin Ze that humans had conquered the other races, wizards had become their tools, and Merlin had left Yilai as a gatekeeper.
• Yilai revealed that Merlin was building a door connected to death to see someone who had been dead for a very long time.
• Mia translated the words on the key as “The way home,” and Yilai said it would send them to the place they yearned for most.
• Lin Ze asked what would happen to Yilai after its death, and Yilai said it wanted to die and thought about it every waking moment.

After Yilai disintegrated, Lin Ze was transported alone to an unfamiliar place called Avalon. He learned that wizards hid in remote places and was directed toward the town of Carl for more information.

• Lin Ze touched Yilai's nape with the key, causing Yilai to collapse into powder as the earthenware bowl cracked and drained.
• Lin Ze, Mia, and Sirius fell through darkness, but Lin Ze landed alone on a grassy slope and found the key missing.
• Lin Ze spotted a barefoot child near the woods, but the child ran away before he could speak to them.
• Lin Ze walked to a nearby settlement and asked an old man where he was, learning that the place was Avalon.
• The old man mistook Lin Ze's questions about wizards for the interest of a witch hunter and told him to travel east to Carl for information.

Lin Ze reached the small town of Carl in Avalon and found an inn for the night. After mounted men arrived searching for outsiders, the innkeeper identified his room, and someone came up the stairs toward him.

• Lin Ze accepted Bree’s offer of a ride toward Carl, then continued on foot when she turned off at a fork.
• Lin Ze reached Carl, bought flatbreads from an old woman, and paid for a room at the town inn with a smoothed Sickle.
• Lin Ze remembered that he was in Avalon, King Arthur’s treasured land and the place where Merlin had risen to prominence.
• A dozen mounted men rode into Carl at night and questioned the innkeeper about outsiders.
• The innkeeper told the riders that Lin Ze was upstairs, and one of the men dismounted and climbed the stairs.

Lin Ze was seized at the inn by witch hunters searching for an Eastern man, but when they recognized the label on his robe and tried to bind him, he launched a violent escape. The chapter left him fighting the hunters inside the inn.

• Lin Ze disguised himself in a ragged quilt as witch hunters broke into his room and questioned him.
• The hunters brought Lin Ze downstairs, where their captain questioned him about his origins and trade.
• The captain recognized the label inside Lin Ze’s robe and ordered the hunters to tie him up and take him away.
• A crash from the kitchen distracted the hunters, and Lin Ze cast Confringo at the doorframe, blasting it apart.
• Lin Ze kicked three hunters into a table, then ducked a blade and seized a pitchfork to pull its wielder off balance.